United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Statistical Division UNECE VAW survey module to measure core set of VAW indicators Henrica A.F.M. (Henriette) Jansen
Slide 2 Friends of Chair core indicators on VAW 1 1.Total and age-specific rate of women subject to physical violence in the last 12 months by severity of violence, relationship to perpetrator(s) and frequency 2.Total and age -specific rate of women subject to physical violence during lifetime by severity of violence, relationship to perpetrator(s) and frequency 3.Total and age-specific rate of women subject to sexual violence in the last 12 months by severity of violence, relationship to perpetrator(s) and frequency 4.Total and age-specific rate of women subject to sexual violence during lifetime by severity of violence, relationship to perpetrator(s) and frequency
Slide 3 Friends of Chair core indicators on VAW 2 5.Total and age-specific rate of women subject to sexual and/or physical violence by current or former intimate partner in the last 12 months by frequency 6.Total and age-specific rate of women subject to sexual and/or physical violence by current or former intimate partner during lifetime by frequency 7.Total and age specific rate of women subjected to psychological violence in the past 12 months by the intimate partner 8.Total and age specific rate of women subjected to economic violence in the past 12 months by the intimate partner 9.Total and age specific rate of women subjected to female genital mutilation
Slide 4 Required classifications for the indicators 1-4: severity 1-4: relationship to perpetrator 1-6: frequency Denominators 1-4: all women 5-8: ever partnered
Slide 5 Indicators and dimensions of VAW collected in existing surveys (Inventory 2009) Almost all surveys give indicators of prevalence of physical and sexual violence Many on perpetrators Few on frequency
Slide 6 UNECE VAW module - Aims: To obtain reliable estimates for the main indicators of violence against women To obtain an impression of the extent to which violence is not reported to authorities
Slide 7 Criteria that were considered for draft module Initial set of indicators should be addressed (as a minimum) Building on instruments that have been well tested and validated across cultures Enabling comparative results (also with surveys already done)
Slide 8 Process of development module Draft module building on WHO study on VAW and using experiences from many countries Draft survey module and testing strategy discussed at Expert Group Meeting on Measuring Violence against women (Geneva Sept 2009) Module modified subsequently Friends of Chair meeting (Mexico Dec 2009): 2 new indicators 2010: testing and further revision of module
Slide 9 Structure of VAW module Questions on demographic characteristics of respondent (besides age in particular partnership status and partnership history) Questions on partner violence: psychological, economic, physical, sexual Questions on violence by others since age 15: physical and sexual Two versions
Slide 10 SECTION ON VIOLENCE BY PARTNERS
Slide 11 Intimate partner violence: 2 sets of questions A) Questions for current or most recent partner B) Questions for any other previous partner Acts of controlling behaviour Acts of economic violence Acts of emotional abuse Acts of physical violence Acts of sexual violence
Slide 12 Measurement of controlling behaviour by partner He tries to keep you from seeing your friends? He tries to restrict contact with your family of birth? He insists on knowing where you are at all times? He ignores you and treats you indifferently? He gets angry if you speak with another man? He is often suspicious that you are unfaithful? He expects you to ask his permission before seeking health care for yourself?
Slide 13 Measurement of economic abuse by partner He refuses to give you enough money for household expenses, even when he has money for other things? [other questions if applicable]
Slide 14 Measurement of emotional violence by partner Insulted you or made you feel bad about yourself? Belittled or humiliated you in front of other people? Done things to scare or intimidate you on purpose (e.g. by the way he looked at you, by yelling and smashing things)? Verbally threatened to hurt you or someone you care about?
Slide 15 Measurement of physical violence by partner Slapped or threw something at that could hurt you? Pushed or shoved you or pulled your hair? Hit with his fist or with anything else that could hurt you? Kicked, dragged or beat you up? Choked or burnt you on purpose? Threatened with or actually used a gun, knife or other weapon against you? Moderate Severe
Slide 16 Measurement of sexual violence by partner Were you ever forced to have sexual intercourse when you did not want to? Did you ever have sexual intercourse you did not want because you were afraid of what he might do? Ever force you to do something sexual that you did not want or that you found degrading or humiliating?
Slide 17 Reference period For each of the acts of abuse or violence: emotional, physical and sexual violence: past 12 months lifetime
Slide 18 Frequency For acts of emotional, physical and sexual violence, and for both past 12 months and before past 12 months: Once, few, many times In test module for events of physical and sexual violence in the past 12 months: 1) daily, weekly, monthly, less than 1/month 2) estimated absolute count
Slide 19 Severity For physical violence: nature of act For physical or sexual violence: Injuries as direct effect of any physical or sexual violence (asking for specific injuries) Miscarriage as direct effect Self reported impact on physical or mental wellbeing Are you ever afraid of partner (never, sometimes, many times, all the time)
Slide 20 Partner violence questions are separately asked for current or most recent partner any previous partner(s) Type of relationship with partner (married, living together, dating) is collected for the previous partners who were violent for each set of controlling behaviours, emotional, physical and sexual violence Type of partner relationship
Slide 21 Non reporting of violence One question at the end -- referring to any type of partner violence reported: “Who have you told about your (previous) partner’s behaviour?” (pre-coded list)
Slide 22 SECTION ON VIOLENCE BY OTHERS THAN PARTNERS
Slide 23 Measurement of physical violence by others than partners Since the age of 15, has anyone ever hit, beaten, kicked or done anything else to hurt you physically? Threw something at you? Pushed you or pulled your hair? Choked or burnt you on purpose? Threatened with or actually used a gun, knife or other weapon against you? PROBE: Anyone else? How about a relative? How about someone at school or work? How about a friend or neighbour? A stranger or anyone else?
Slide 24 Perpetrators, reference period and severity Pre-coded list of perpetrators (incl. sex) For each of the perpetrators mentioned: How many times did this happen since you were 15 y: once, few, many How many times did this happen in the past 12 months: once, few, many For the each of (max 3) most serious perpetrators: 3 questions on injuries
Slide Measurement of sexual violence by others than partners – Rape Since the age of 15, has anyone ever forced you into sexual intercourse when you did not want to for example by threatening you, holding you down or putting you in a situation that you could not say no. Remember to include people you have known as well as strangers. Please at this point exclude attempts to force you. Who did this to you? (followed by probes)
Slide Measurement of other forms of sexual violence by others Since the age of 15, has anyone attempted to force you into a sexual act you did not want, attempted to force you into sexual intercourse (which did not take place), touched you sexually, or did anything else sexually that you did not want. Remember to include people you have known as well as strangers. Who did this to you? (followed by probes)
Slide 27 Perpetrators and reference period sexual violence (both sets) Pre-coded list of perpetrators Includes sex of perpetrator For each of the perpetrators mentioned: How many times did this happen since you were 15: once, few, many How many times did this happen in the past 12 months: once, few, many Severity: rape vs. other sexual abuse
Slide 28 ETHICAL AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS
Slide 29 Challenges of ensuring data quality and respondent safety are often greater when VAW module is incorporated in surveys on other topics compared to in specialized (dedicated) surveys in VAW
Slide 30 Minimum conditions for using a short module Measures to protect safety of respondents and interviewers Crisis intervention and referrals to specialized services for respondents who need this Special training and emotional support and follow-up for interviewers
Slide 31 ACCOMPANYING MATERIALS AND TESTING STRATEGY
Slide 32 Accompanying materials Question by question explanation Training program for interviewers with training facilitators manual and PPT Interviewer manual including ethical and safety measures [Outline for feedback report and guides for debriefing interviewers] Code book and analysis plan for the VAW indicators SPSS recodes and syntaxes
Slide 33 Codebook
Slide 34 IndicatorDenominatorNumeratorRelationshipSeverity Frequ ency Comments 1 Total and age specific rate of women subjected to physical violence in the last 12 months by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator and frequency All women that receive the module, total and in 5 year age groups All women that experienced physical partner violence and/or non partner violence in the last 12 months Partners, relatives, friends/ acquantance s/ strangers/ others (to be decided) Severe for partner violence: injuries and/or miscarriage and/or acts c-f (else moderate); Severe for non-partner violence: physical violence with injuries Once, few times, many times Need to include the missing answers on partner violence from those who were not partnered and recode them as "no" 2 Total and age specific rate of women subjected to physical violence during lifetime by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator and frequency All women that receive the module, total and in 5 year age groups All women that experienced physical partner violence and/or non partner violence in their life (for non- partners since age 15) Partners, relatives, friends/ acquantance s/ strangers/ others (to be decided) Severe for partner violence: injuries and/or miscarriage and/or acts c-f (else moderate); Severe for non- partner violence: physical violence with injuries Once, few times, many times Need to include the missing answers on partner violence from those who were not partnered and recode them as "no" 3 Total and age specific rate of women subjected to sexual violence in the last 12 months by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator and frequency All women that receive the module, total and in 5 year age groups All women that experienced sexual partner violence and/or non partner violence in the last 12 months Partners, relatives, friends/ acquantance s/ strangers/ others (to be decided) Severe for partner violence: any forced sexual intercourse; for non-partner violence: rape (else moderate) Once, few times, many times Need to include the missing answers on partner violence from those who were not partnered and recode them as "no" 4 Total and age specific rate of women subjected to sexual violence during lifetime by severity of violence, relationship to the perpetrator and frequency All women that receive the module, total and in 5 year age groups All women that experienced sexual partner violence and/or non partner violence in their life (for non-partners since age 15) Partners, relatives, friends/ acquantance s/ strangers/ others (to be decided) Severe for partner violence: any forced sexual intercourse; for non-partner violence: rape (else moderate) Once, few times, many times Need to include the missing answers on partner violence from those who were not partnered and recode them as "no"
Slide 35 IndicatorDenominatorNumeratorRelationshipSeverity Freque ncyComments 5Total and age specific rate of ever-partnered women subjected to sexual and/or physical violence by current of former intimate partner in the last 12 months by frequency All ever- partnered women that receive the module, total and in 5 year age groups All women that experienced sexual and/or physical partner violence in the last 12 months Current partners/ former partners (can be broken down in more detailed way) Severe for non-partner violence: physical violence with injuries (note: not required for indicator 5) Once, few times, many times To be explored for more detailed counts of incidents (collected in the test module) 6Total and age specific rate of ever-partnered women subjected to sexual and/or physical violence by current or former intimate partner during lifetime by frequency All ever- partnered women that receive the module, total and in 5 year age groups All women that experienced physical partner violence and/or non partner violence in their life Current partners/ former partners (can be broken down in more detailed way) Severe for non-partner violence: physical violence with injuries (note: not required for indicator 6) Once, few times, many times Although not part of the indicator: To be explored for partner violence: health impacts, continuous living in fear as aspects of severity 7Total and age specific rate of women subjected to psychological violence in the past 12 months by the intimate partner All ever- partnered women that receive the module, total and in 5 year age groups All women that experienced sexual and/or psychological partner violence in the last 12 months Current partners/ former partners (can be broken down in more detailed way) Explore this indicator with and without controlling behaviours 8Total and age specific rate of women subjected to economic violence in the past 12 months by the intimate partner All ever- partnered women that receive the module, total and in 5 year age groups All women that experienced sexual and/or economical partner violence in the last 12 months Current partners/ former partners (can be broken down in more detailed way) Consider testing other questions on economic violence
Slide 36 Table shells (dummy tables)
Slide 37 Recode and analysis syntaxes *** prsevpa - severity based on acts (first 2 acts only = moderate) IF (prphys = 0) prsevpa =0. IF (V27aa = 1 | V27ab =1) prsevpa = 1. IF (V27ac = 1 | V27ad = 1 | V27ae = 1 | V27af = 1) prsevpa = 2. VARIABLE LABELS prsevpa 'severity phys violence by former partner (acts)'. VALUE LABELS prsevpa 0 'no phys violence' 1 'moderate phys violence only' 2 'severe phys violence'. EXECUTE. *** prsevpi - severity based on injuries (first 2 acts only = moderate) IF (prphys = 0) prsevpi =0. IF ( V40aa = 2 & V40ab = 2 & V40ac = 2 & V40ad = 2 ) prsevpi = 1. IF (V40aa = 1 | V40ab = 1 | V40ac = 1 | V40ad = 1) prsevpi = 2. VARIABLE LABELS prsevpi 'severity phys violence by former partner (injuries)'. VALUE LABELS prsevpi 0 'no phys violence' 1 'phys violence no injuries' 2 'phys violence and injuries'. EXECUTE.
Slide 38 REALIZE that this is different from routine surveys Ethical issues, including safe name Training of interviewers: very important!! Psychological support for interviewers and respondents It is an intervention in itself: Survey as a participatory activity Survey as transforming for interviewers and researchers Survey as awareness building among respondents
Slide 39 Final considerations Module not suited for deeper understanding of violence Module: more issues of safety and ethics Module: more issues around underreporting/comparability A dedicated survey remains the golden standard Way ahead: a dedicated survey bringing together existing knowledge and experience, with UNECE ‘module’ as section of the questionnaire
Slide 40 (c) photos: Henriette Jansen FOR MORE INFORMATION AND MATERIALS: Measuring+violence+against+women Good luck!!